CONCEPTS and PRINCIPLES

As we age or get really busy with work and family life, it is important to realize that techniques based solely on your fitness and strength can be risky. Your opponent may be stronger and faster than you.

The journey of learning “effortless power” can be very interesting, especially for those who enjoy intellectual challenges and experiencing things they may not have encountered before. You are indeed learning how to use both your body and mind more efficiently.

Even though it is theoretically “effortless”, it is not really effortless to learn. This is because it is not something you have been doing all your life. In fact, some of you have told me that your default response is exactly the opposite. There is nothing wrong in training yourself to be stronger and fitter. It is just a matter of when and how you those extra resources.

Therefore, you need to put effort into training your brain to work differently.

Learning to relax is not just useful for fighting. Many people experience aches and pains because of tension, or sleepless nights because of anxiety. Learning to use relaxation in different ways can help you enjoy life differently.

I hope you all treasure what you have learned and continue with this journey.

SCENARIOS

Locks

Locks are not my primary set of tools, but they can be useful in the following ways:

• They are a great way to discover the limitations of your joints.
• Flexibility AND strength are both useful resources for fitness as well as for self defense.
• Knowing how to apply and escape locks is a great way to understand mechanics, strategies, and different approaches.
• While most people fall within a “normal range” of joint mobility, some are at either end of the spectrum (i.e., extremely tight or very flexible).

In class, we demonstrated and experimented with the following locks”

• Pinky-up wrist lock
• Palms-inward lock
• Finger lock
• Elbow lock

Handshake

Some people try to assert their dominance by squeezing your hand really hard during a handshake.

• Thumb lock – This strategy involves relaxing your palm so that you can wiggle your hand into a position where it can grip the other person’s thumb and apply the joint lock.
• Fourth-finger and pinky lock – When shaking hands with someone who is trying to dominate you and whom you feel you need to teach a lesson, reach out with both hands and target the person’s last two fingers. Twist them so that their palm faces upward. Practice slowly! This can really hurt.

How to hold a fist

Fold all your fingers (without the thumb) tightly down so that the fingertips touch the base of the fingers. Then curl the fingers further to form a tight fist.

Your forearm, wrist, and knuckles should form a straight line. When making contact, the impact should be focused slightly more on the index and middle finger knuckles, rather than the pinky knuckle, which is more fragile.

Causing Pain

• Solar plexus – Most kids who have played soccer have probably been hit by a soccer ball at full speed at least once. The impact can cause the diaphragm to spasm, leaving you feeling as though you cannot breathe. A focused strike to this area can cause a person to bend over and struggle to recover for a short time.
• Throat – Jabbing your fingers into someone’s throat can cause severe damage. From my experience, however, in many cases, simply applying pressure while firmly saying “STOP IT!” may be enough to get the desired effect.
• Upward nose strike – A direct strike to the nose can cause a fracture. Pressure from below may cause a person to tilt their head backward to relieve the discomfort, potentially leaving them vulnerable to further attacks.
• T-junction area – Behind the jawbone, you can find a soft-tissue area. Applying pressure to this area can cause significant pain.
• Groin – We have all seen accidental hits to the groin cause even a big guy to drop to his knees. So yes, a hit to this area can be very painful. However, you need to be very close for it to have any chance of connecting. Furthermore, this is a well-known target because of the movies, so it is not necessarily as effective or unexpected as some people might think.
• Mid-thigh – There is a sensitive area around the middle of the thigh where nerves can be affected. Direct impact to this area, such as from a knee, can cause significant pain.
• Triceps grab – Grabbing the skin around the upper arm and squeezing while pulling can cause considerable pain.

Delivery of impact force (E = 1/2 m v² ) and Pressure

TThere are a few points to keep in mind when looking at impact:

• Looking at the formula, you can see that kinetic energy depends on mass (your body mass) and velocity (speed at the time of impact).
• Notice that velocity is squared in the formula. This means that an increase in speed has a much greater effect on kinetic energy than the same proportional increase in mass.

When discussing impact and pressure, it is also important to consider the contact area. The same force applied over a smaller area produces greater pressure.

EXERCISES

To improve the quality of your stretches, remember the phrase “We Love Pizza, Lots of cheese” and what each bold letter represents. In class, we focused on the following areas:

• Hamstrings
• Inner thighs and opening up the hip joints
• Quads and hip flexors

Static push

Static Push

This is classified as an isometric exercise. It is a great way to train your body to maintain structural integrity when delivering a push. Common mistakes include allowing force to leak through the joints instead of maintaining a connected structure.

Backward Crawl

This is a great way to develop functional arm strength. In some ways, it also works muscles similar to those used in a plank. Make sure your elbows are bent and your body stays relatively flat. Otherwise, you are simply relying on your body structure to support yourself.

Besides this basic version, there are many additional exercises you can develop from here.

SIDE NOTES

No classes are offered during the winter months. However, if you would like to stay in touch, discuss anything you may have forgotten, ask questions, or receive notifications when classes resume, I can create a WhatsApp group for this purpose.

Let me know if you are interested!